Warp World

I will teach you to hate

23

JUN/11

The party rocked on the observation deck, threatened by the combined heat of the molten pools beneath them and pilot lights lit up on the piping affixed to the bottom of the deck. On the center of the deck the anvil snake coiled itself, pulling itself at high speed across the platform by the magnetic pull that seemed to hold it together. It collided into Pseudo and turned just before reaching the edge of the platform, pulling Pseudo alongside it.

The snake collided into Fim’s field to little effect. Pseudo hopped over its midsection and joined One in evasive maneuvers as Fim dispersed his plasma blasters inside of his shell, blasting the ceiling of the chamber. Tai hung above the floor of the deck as jets of flame covered it, burning its occupants. Pseudo dipped into its nightmarish origins and attempted to terrorize any possible mind of the beast, finding that it seemed to react fearfully to these assaults. One dropped a matter bomb recovered from the facility onto the platform and put some distance between itself and the snake, who lashed helplessly at Fim and knocked Pseudo about. Tai webbed the “head” of the snake to the edge of the platform, directing his comrades around the pilot lights beneath the floor.

Fim shoved the snake nearly completely off of the edge of the deck with his gravitational control. One’s matter bomb detonated as One used its unusual physiology to create a miniature black hole just above the molten pool, dragging the snake downward as it attempted to pull itself back on the platform. After landing damaging blows on Pseudo and One, the snake finally succumbed to the damage inflicted on it and slid into the pool below.

Disabling the flame jets and taking a moment to assemble themselves, the party decided to find their aggressor. Removing the blockage in the ceiling track, they pushed the deck forward to the edge of the chamber. Amid the machines and conveyor belts on the floor, their orb-like nemesis was reaching out with its many appendages, burying itself inside layers of junk and rubble. One was perplexed to find its nemesis in a non-threatening position, and Fim and Tai moved to try and examine it closer.

Fim lifted away pieces of the orb’s makeshift shield, resulting in a tug of war of sorts. Tai webbed any tendrils he saw that looked aggressive as Fim floated in front of the orb’s single reptilian eye. It regarded him without much interest until he got very close, at which point it began to poke and prod the outside of his shell. Fim did not fight even as it put a tendril through his shell, feeling around inside. It found the base of Fim’s neck and pressed something sharply into his flesh. Fim lost his composure for a moment and regarded Tai, not rationally able to regard him as an ally. Almost as an instinctual act, Fim lifted a single hand outside of his shell and fired off a plasma blast at Tai and nearly knocking him from his perch. Watching himself do this shook Fim of his affliction and he reached up to his neck, removing a chip that had been placed there. At once Fim, Tai and One blasted the orb until it stopped moving, pausing after the dust settled.

Fim cautiously turned the orb to face him, removing a glass face plate and reaching inside to attempt to determine its inner workings. He found rudimentary life support cables attached to a flaming green reptilian eye, and removed this unusual specimen. Unable to find anything out of the ordinary, he placed it inside of the mini refrigerator he kept behind him with the intent of getting back to it later. After several moments the fridge exploded in green flame-Fim hastily removed the eye and watched as the fridge’s rudimentary legs warped into something more animate. He sat it down on the ground and watched as it went about its own business, finding a warm spot by one of the pools and sprawling out.

Pseudo excitedly asked if Fim could repeat the procedure for its robotic drone. Fim, viewing Pseudo as a kind of pet, humored this idea and animated the amalgam of a boom box and floating sentry drone. This, too, warped into some kind of animate construct and began to examine the room. Fim realized that this organ could animate inorganic matter, turning it into a reptilian construct. He was content to leave the fridge to its own devices, but the drone had proven useful for protecting Pseudo and the nightmare creature had hopes of keeping it. Fim anointed the recovered chip with the groups Node-infused blood and installed it into the drone, allowing the group to control it with simple mental pushes, and gave the eye to Pseudo to carry.

The party went to the hangar door that Tai had discovered earlier, unable to find a way to open it. Some rationalization between Fim and One helped Fim realize that the lock keeping him from reviving the prototype soldier army may have been lifted, and the group returned to that chamber to attempt to open the door and revive the soldier. Fim stopped briefly in the nano vat room to collect some samples in empty shell casings. They recovered Roberto, who had been amorously pursuing the first prototype soldier to be awakened, Fathiyya, who was still pacing about the room. She regarded Fim with suspicion as usual as he entered and unceremoniously went up to the console and awoke the army. The room filled with the released gases as the women stepped out of their tubes in flawless unison and looked to Fathiyya with a look of subordination. Curiosity appropriately sated, Fim uncharacteristically wished Fathiyya well with her new found leadership and floated out of the room.

Back in the metal works the party had discovered a factory line of war vehicles somehow assembled from the molten pools. Commandeering one for themselves, Tai drove them east toward their next destination, the apparent landing area for Fim’s race. Finding that the amazon army led by Fathiyya was close on their heels, Fim made a point to fly over and declare a tentative truce with her. Several bumpy hours into their journey and well into the evening, the group came to their first large obstacle-a debris filled crater that posed an opportunity to alter their vehicle.